Etsy Shop

So I'm thinking about opening up an Etsy shop soon. I'm just not sure if I have the time to devote to it right now. Any opinions? Either way, for now I'm just taking orders for different things on a word of mouth basis. Here is an example of the cute gift bags I'm making to package my superhero capes. The great part is that they're reusable! I think I'm going to make some for wrapping Christmas presents this year, too. :-)

Sewing Project

This is my first try at a new clutch pattern. What do you think?

My Mini-Me

Madeline takes every opportunity to borrow my cell phone. She's sneaky... she'll find it in my purse, or she'll climb things to get it off the counter. Yesterday she stole my phone, opened it up, and proceeded to talk to someone while she played. I'm pretty sure I heard her say something about Elmo, so maybe that's who she was talking to. Either way I laughed when I saw her holding it up with her shoulder. The multitasking starts early!

Recent Craft Projects

Lately Caleb has been playing superhero a lot... I blame SuperWhy. Anywhoo, we found him a pair of pajamas that were supposedly some kind of generic superhero. He spent the entire evening flying around the house... so proud of his new "cape." But the cape that came with the jammies was tiny. Sad. Very un-super. So being the Mommy I am, I decided to make him his very own Super Caleb cape. I think it turned out pretty darn cute. I couldn't forget his sidekick, Super Puppy. He got a cape, too. How fun is that?
In other random craft news... Know what this pile of stuff adds up to?

New hair bows for Madeline! I know some day she'll outgrow the whole bow thing, but for the moment she loves them. She even wants one if she's in pajamas. My girl is a girlie-girl. What can I say?

Have a crafty day!

Balloons

Yesterday a very nice lady gave my kids balloons. They were more than excited... it made their day. Sweet Madeline spent the rest of the day like this: She carried it around everywhere. Until she discovered her favorite new game.... letting it go and watching it float up to the ceiling. Then she wanted me to hold her up so she could reach the string. Everyone would cheer.... repeat. Until she realized that it went much higher in the living room. Unfortunately, I can't reach balloons up there.

So.... enter the balloon-hook-o-matic 3000... or as I like to call it... my broom with a bent hanger.

Mommy saves the day again!

Congrats Michael!

So on Saturday Michael graduated. Yay! I know he's gotta be thrilled to be done with school. We wanted to go to his graduation, so we made it a bit of a family event and took the kids. We knew they'd never make it through an entire graduation ceremony, but we were prepared to take turns walking around in the hallway. I was also prepared with a bag full of crayons, books, small toys, and jelly beans. (Emphasis on the jelly beans.) Unfortunately, I was so busy kid wrangling that I took almost no pictures. Sorry. That's why this is the one and only shot I have of Michael... even though it was his graduation... and he's the entire reason we drove to Fayetteville... Although come to think of it, I'm not sure I spoke more than three words to him the entire time we were there. Sorry, Michael. We really do like you. We weren't ignoring you on purpose. Promise! Fortunately, Popup decided he'd help kid wrangle. He got to walk around in the hallway, too! It's like an exclusive club out there in the hallway. To gain admittance you just needed a little kid or a baby. Bonus points if they're precious and tiny!

Uncle Bobby was there, but we don't talk about him. Don't ask... You don't want to know anyway. Unless you're a single lady on the prowl... then feel free to ask. I have an odd compulsion to marry him off to someone.

So in the long run we survived (and enjoyed) graduation... even though it was scheduled for nap time. And after all the excitement we had a nice, quiet ride home.

Have a nice day!

The Nap Odyssey

So a while back Madeline decided to switch from two naps a day down to one. Okay. I can live with that. It frees up our mornings considerably. I can take the kids to town or whatever, as long as we're home for afternoon nap. It all makes perfect sense. I knew there would be a difficult transition time where she'd be cranky on some days and have a hard time making it until nap time... but whatever... I can deal. But every once in a while kids need to assert their authority over us... the mere parents. This is how it went down:

I put Madeline to bed for afternoon nap. She said "night, night" in that cute little voice of hers. And all was good with the world for about thirty minutes. Then the screaming started. And continued. And turned into shrieking. I tried to comfort her... tried to rock her... hold her... leave her alone... all to no avail. The shrieking escalated. Thank goodness this happened on a Saturday, so Josh was home. About this time (I was on the verge of a mental breakdown of some sort) Josh walked in the door, took one look at my face, and went to console Madeline. Did I mention he's wonderful? Well, it worked for about twenty minutes. Then the shrieking started anew. By this point her little face was so red and blotchy, I was afraid she was going to bust a blood vessel or something. We surrendered. She came out of her room to watch her daddy play video games. And she totally won. She persevered... and it worked. Does she look distressed to you? Blotchy, maybe. Distressed? No. Parents: 0 / Toddler: 1

An Inalienable Right of Childhood...

... licking the beaters!

Have a yummy day!

Josh's New Pride and Joy

Can't blame the guy. Everyone needs a place to get away. :-) Have a relaxing day!

Madeline's Room, Part 2

I finally finished putting up the wall decals, so here's how it looks now. The picture doesn't really do it justice. You'll just have to trust that it's cuter in real life. :-)

And check out the adorable matching picture Pennie found for me! I'm running out of words for "cute".Have a cute-tastic day!